


ga//antry

by gadaursan



Series: 0xS74RDUS7 [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mecha, Alternate Universe - Space Opera, Gen, Human Experimentation, Inspired by Music, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Origin Story, Psychological Trauma, get in the robot takeru, or yusaku will do it for you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-07 21:33:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21224537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gadaursan/pseuds/gadaursan
Summary: If only he had an ounce of the strength the Playmaker had, Takeru thought bitterly. It didn't matter if that man was considered a traitor to the Alliance, any soldier would say that he was a genius of his generation, his generation, actually. What a cruel twist of fate that both of them were born in the same year only to turn out as totally different people. The best Takeru could do was aspire to such an impossible ideal.





	ga//antry

**Author's Note:**

> Okay enough clowning around, time for some actual continuity for that Mecha AU! The music inspiration isn't really synced to the fic, but hey, it helps set the mood. Soulburner and Flame need a own cool theme song about fire and drift compatibility. Flame demands it!
> 
> I'd imagine this would be how a season 2 of this Mecha AU would kick off, with Yusaku seemingly going off the grid after fighting Ryoken in some big battle. So, a flashy way for Yusaku to come back while Takeru gets an emotional debut.

♬ | Gallant Ones by Hiroyuki Sawano (feat. Benjamin & Mpi) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQYvhv9CYaE) | [Soundcloud](https://soundcloud.com/dillzytante2/promare-ost-gallant-ones)

_We come to you with… news…_

_SOL Alliance as gained… member… will hold against the Barian Empire?_

_Knights of Hanoi… still at large… leader returned… months ago… kept at a distance… what… plan?_

_We don't know… how long… since the Battle of…_

_Do you remember… happened… at that battle?_

_Yes… summer of XX45… lives lost… that day…_

_Major Fujiki… once leading ace of… seemingly disappeared… atmosphere with the leader of the Knights of Hanoi…_

_What… he…? A hero? Or a fugitive… the law?_

_His fate… unknown._

* * *

"Takeru? Hey, Takeru!"

The soldier in question looked away from his phone. The news clip that was playing was stuttering endlessly in places, utterly useless if anyone wanted any information. To make matters worse, the old thing was interrupted by a frequent overlay of static.

"What?" He frowned up at a girl the same age as him. She huffed and put her hands on her hips.

"Did you really think you were going to get a good signal up here? This is a remote base, no way they're going to let anything get in!"

Takeru looked down at his phone again. Kiku was right. This old thing wasn't going to play anything.

"Come on," Kiku tugged at his sleeve. "We have a delivery to make."

And despite how unhappy he was, Takeru let her drag him to his feet and lead him towards the laboratory. He held tighter on the package underneath his free arm. His fingers struggled not to let his phone slip and surely shatter into an irreparable mess. He should have gotten it replaced when he had the chance to before coming up here. But then he'd have to learn all the new features and buttons like a child learning how to bike again.

Takeru couldn't part with this old phone. He's had this thing for years on end, ever since his first mission… his first failure. He still remembered the suffocating smoke and the death throes of his teammates who had counted on him to help them in return. So much hope was placed in him, and Takeru stumbled all the way down to being backup.

If only he had an ounce of the strength the Playmaker had, Takeru thought bitterly. It didn't matter if that man was considered a traitor to the Alliance, any soldier would say that he was a genius of his generation, his generation, actually. What a cruel twist of fate that both of them were born in the same year only to turn out as totally different people. The best Takeru could do was aspire to such an impossible ideal.

He didn't realize that Kiku had taken him to an elevator until the doors shut on them in a small chamber with several other soldiers and researchers. Takeru pressed himself into a corner and kept his eyes trained on his feet. If he held his breath the whole way, he wouldn't remember that day.

* * *

Today was supposed to be a slow day at this particular base, so why was there such a high level of security today? Yusaku and Shoichi had spent weeks following the base's patterns and hacking into their records, but their plan fell through once again. He was starting to wonder if some of their confidants, as few as there were, had leaked of a potential attack to the people running this place.

Yusaku huffed his exasperation away and put away his binoculars and tucked them into his pocket. He wasn't immensely worried about getting caught here from his perch under the boughs of the great oak outside the gates. But if they wanted in, they'll have to do a lot better at blending in if they were going to get to the XF-05's chamber.

"Yusakuuuuu," A certain irritating someone whined into his ear. "Why can't we just go in with the Talker? You know we can just blast our way in and go."

"Were you even listening to our briefing?" Yusaku swatted at Ai on his shoulder knowing full well that it would go right through him. "This is a covert mission. Nothing flashy. Now put me in my cover."

"Finnneee."

The change was instant. Gone were the blue and pink locks, and in was a combination of blond and red. The outlines of his face grew sharp, and his growing build filled into the baggy clothes of the uniform he and Shoichi stole from an unsuspecting soldier two weeks earlier. Yusaku Fujiki was unrecognizable.

Yusaku hopped down from into the grass and crouched behind the bushes waiting for the next truck to pass by so he could hitch a ride.

* * *

"Sir, we've detected something unusual with the activity within the base," Hayami reported to Akira to his left. He approached the soldier, looking over at the countless screens over her shoulder. Nothing particularly out of place from his end, but he trusted Hayami to have sharper eyes than he did.

"Someone's been messing with the security feed," She pointed to one camera as an example, and Akira could confirm that something indeed was wrong. Someone was looping footage so they couldn't see anything. A hacker skilled enough to break into a heavily armed military facility like this was distracting them, but from what?

"Sir!" Another voice through a voice channel caught them off guard. "We've heard a distress call from the inner laboratory!"

"All the way back there?!" Hayami gasped in alarm. Akira was surprised himself that the intruder could get so far without only alerting security now. He hadn't seen such an infiltration pattern since… Yusaku Fujiki.

Akira's hands balled into fists at the name. He hadn't forgiven the young man for not only abandoning his duty, but also nearly killing Aoi in the line of battle out in space. Akira couldn't forget the panic that overwhelmed him when he and the rest of the crew struggled to resuscitate her from being flung out into a vacuum from the impact of the Decode Talker's blows.

Queen was right to have sent him here to supervise operations here. She knew that he would face down the Playmaker without delusions about his legendary feats. Akira could see Fujiki for what he was, a monster who betrayed his country for the sake of more monsters.

Another channel opened up, and the voice that followed made all the color drain from his face.

"I'll deploy to engage the intruder, brother," said Aoi, loud and clear.

"No!" His words came out more harshly than he intended. "I won't allow it!"

"Don't argue with me on this," she defended herself. "You know as well as I do who is in the base right now. Only I can stand to match up against the Decode Talker and its Ignis."

"The Decode Talker…?" Hayami said under her breath, unable to follow the conversation, but Akira didn't have time to explain.

No… Akira wanted to tell Aoi. The last time they believed that they could beat Yusaku fair and square in combat, Aoi nearly died. He couldn't have a repeat of their accident in space again, not even here on the earth. No matter how willing she was to burn the world down for him, he couldn't lose her again.

But Akira had to do everything he could to keep Fujiki from reaching that experimental frame. His and the entire crew's reputation hung on how soon they could capture the rogue soldier. He couldn't let a single detail fall out of place, even if it meant throwing his own sister into the line of fire. He couldn't take any chances here, either.

He let out a deep sigh, and Hayami watched him, concerned.

"You will deploy but only as a last line of defense," he instructed Aoi. "Don't go out until I say so."

* * *

So far, their infiltration had been going smoothly. They made it past most of the critical checkpoints, and as far as Ai could report, the security had yet to suspect a thing. The only problem was that communications were jammed, so Kusanagi wouldn't be around to assist them. That was fine, Yusaku supposed. He had Ai memorize the entire map against his will instead.

Now they were at the final gate before they could access the laboratory.

"Gee, you think they'd be more careful with confidential stuff," Ai laughed as he opened a second terminal. "This thing's only got three layers!"

"Less chatting, more working," he reminded Ai, who grumbled and continued his work getting through the system.

They made quick work of the inner security, and should all go well they would slip in and get out without shedding a drop of blood. The doors slid open, and Yusaku went for the first row of pillars before the archway leading into the rest of the lab.

Yuskau pulled the ring off of a gas bomb from his pocket and rolled it across the floor of the chamber. Then he hid behind the pillar again, pulling up the color of his uniform to protect himself, while Ai nestled close even though he wouldn't be affected. They both waited quietly as they heard the startled gasps of the soldiers and researchers who got caught in the cloud of sleeping gas that had formed. Once they estimated that the coast was clear, Yusaku stepped out of the shadows and entered the room, gun drawn.

They worked on the next door and repeated the same procedure again, then again, until the fourth chamber Yusaku had to duck to dodge a bullet whizzing past his head. A whole squadron of soldiers waited out here for him and fired on the work desk that he took shelter behind. Yusaku clicked his tongue in annoyance and rose out of his cover, shooting each and every one of them down with deadly accuracy.

The gunfight concluded in a smoking mess, and someone set off an alarm before Yusaku shot them down. Now the entire place was calling for a lockdown.

Ai gave his partner a mocking, disappointed look as they hacked open the final series of doors.

"Nothing flashy, huh."

Yusaku refused to dignify that with a response and broke into a run. Every doorway they ran through slammed closed at their heels and the final door, Yusaku was forced to dive through and tumble into the next room less than gracefully. Even through here, the alarms from the front of the laboratory could be heard. He scanned the area and saw a door leading a much larger chamber that resembled an aircraft hangar. That must be where the mobile suits were.

"Did you jam all the gates?" He reminded Ai as he rounded the control panels down the stairs leading into the hangar.

"Uh, yeah, of course I did!" Ai waved his hands. "I knew to be prepared for trouble!"

"Then we'll have a few minutes to spare," Yusaku jumped over the railing and rolled onto the story below. One cursory glance, and he saw no one.

His feet stopped right at the end of a metal bridge where he could see it — the XF-05 Salamangreat. The mobile suit wasn't nearly as slender as the Decode Talker, not with the additional arms attached at the torso, but it was definitely built for strength and dexterity. If they could communicate with the Flame Ignis running this thing, they would gain yet another powerful member on their team. Ai had also hypothesized that Yusaku could probably fly the XF-05 out of the hangar, but he doubted he could. If this mobile suit was anything like the Decode Talker, biometrics were likely already registered to someone else. They'll definitely have to find that person later.

"Ah, darn," Ai hovered over the nearby screen. "They were smart to add security here, too…"

Yusaku huffed at Ai's whining. Of course they did. SOL probably added those protections in anticipation of the event that someone would try to steal another experimental mobile suit.

"All righty-" Ai made a gesture that resembled cracking his knuckles. "Let's get to-"

"No, I'm doing this," Yusaku brushed Ai aside and got set to typing into the terminal himself, much to Ai's discontent. The protocols used here were probably nothing Ai had ever seen before, and they didn't have the time to teach him and hack into this system at the same time.

"Watch for me."

"Finneeee."

It didn't take long for Yusaku's mind to sink quickly into the zone, typing furiously and ignoring everything around him. His eyes remained glued on the screen all the way to the end. There and done, he thought proudly to himself. Now all he had to do was-

His thought was left incomplete when something struck him against the head, knocking his earpiece out and sending him sprawling against the floor. Yusaku hear the telltale fizz of his disguise falling apart over the ringing in his ears.

Damnit, didn't he tell Ai to keep watch?

Ignoring the swelling pain in the back of his head, Yusaku grabbed the railing and propped himself up. He froze in place when he heard a soft gasp from his assailant.

* * *

Takeru wasn't exactly thinking when he swung a wrench into the back of the intruder's head. He was making a big gambit here, but if there was one thing he wasn't crappy at, his instinct for danger was never wrong.

He waited while the stranger groaned, his red and blond streaked hair filtered away to reveal that his hair was actually blue. Takeru held his only weapon out as caution as the stranger got up and raised their head. His green eyes struck Takeru as something familiar. Then it all clicked together.

Takeru recognized Yusaku Fujiki anywhere. One of the Sol Army's prized fighters, or at least he used to be before he ran off with one of Sol's experimental Ignis models. The pilot's sudden act of treason truly threw the entire alliance off their guard, but they were quick to respond to the sudden release of confidential research. Ever since he finished basic training and joined the force, he had seen Yusaku's face plastered on many a screen and most records of what Yusaku had released was relegated to the deeper parts of the net.

Yusaku Fujiki was a hero... his hero.

Here he was in the flesh.

And Takeru had just smacked him with a wrench.

"You…" he spoke absently.

No one should blame Takeru for having unrealistic expectations of a living legend, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the real Yusaku was scrawnier than the one in recruitment posters and wanted announcements. Now that he thought about it, Takeru didn't realize that Yusaku was wearing clothes too big for him. Actually, he hadn't expected that the soldier would be so thin. Was that even healthy?

"Ooh, it's him!"

A voice came up from next to Yusaku, and Takeru saw a small humanoid form floating by his head, its beady, golden eyes blinking back at him.

Yusaku stopped glaring at him and then turned to his little companion, although he seemed just as annoyed. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure! He's that Homura kid on the file!"

"File? What file?" Takeru backed away, his voice cracking in fright. Some part of him was screaming that if that thing wasn't lying, then Yusaku Fujiki must know everything about him, from his origins, his school records, his performance on the field… oh… and his failure…

"Takeru Homura," Yusaku followed his steps down the bridge. "You have something that we need."

There was no ground left for Takeru to step back into, and he teetered on the edge until a firm hand caught him by the front of his shirt. He knew that Yusaku and his companion had no reason to kill him, but still he was at their mercy.

"Hey-" Takeru tried to grab Yusaku's hand, but the man tugged at the cloth to remind him of the imminent danger he was in. "Whoawhoawhoawhoa please don't kill me!!"

"What do you remember about the Lost Incident?"

An interrogation? Neither of them had time for that! Takeru could hear the shouts of soldiers approaching the corridor.

"I… I don't know anything! I don't know what you're even talking about!"

Yusaku's eyebrows rose at his answer, while his companion shook his head, doing no favors for Takeru and his anxiety. Did he answer that question wrong? Was he going to die?

"Well, must have been the trauma," the companion shrugged. "Guess we were the lucky ones, after all."

"This will be a problem," Yusaku griped. "But at least he can pilot the damn thing."

Takeru's panic skyrocketed as he heard the sound of a gun busting the lock into the laboratory, followed by footsteps charging into the chambers close to where they were standing. Just what were these two doing keeping them here? Were they at all worried about getting shot?

Thankfully, Yusaku did notice the noise, and he looked back at the entrance to gauge just how long it would take for them to finish their business. One second, and he looked back at the nearby control board and turned the monitor on. Onscreen was a model of the mobile suit stationed underneath them, already tuned at full capacity. Takeru was starting to realize just what was going to happen next.

"Hey, wait, what are you-"

"Just get out and drive," Yusaku ordered him and began pressing a series of buttons while the suit started up below him. "You don't even have to remember."

"Remember what?!"

"You can handle this." How… just how could this man have any confidence in him? "The Flame Ignis who was bound to you by the Salamangreat will have the answers."

"Wait, but what's a-"

Before Takeru could even finish, he felt Yusaku loosen his hold and let gravity do the rest of the work. He only had a few seconds to react until he was flailing and screaming the rest of the way down.

As if on cue, the mobile suit was let out of its restraints and propelled itself towards him, arms stretched out and cockpit busting wide open. Takeru had never been more terrified in his life.

* * *

"You think we spooked him a bit too much?" Ai looked to Yusaku as they watched the boy and his suit plummet down the chute, perhaps never to be seen again. Having both one Ignis and their origin in one place had been too good a chance to pass up.

"Homura Takeru graduated from the academy at the top of his class," Yusaku repeated their findings again back to his partner. "He can handle himself."

"Yeah, but he's got a bad practical record," Ai folded his arms over his chest. "The guy has never gotten deployed even after graduation because he goes nuts when he-"

"I have full faith that the Flame Ignis will take care of that," Yusaku turned around back into the laboratory. "Or do you not trust your fellow Ignis?"

"Uh, I mean-"

Without warning, Yusaku drew out his gun and took three careful shots, taking out unsuspecting soldiers within eyesight. He didn't stop his stride as he walked up into the laboratory and continued shooting, hitting another three soldiers who only just realized his presence.

He stepped over the body of one of the definitely dead soldiers and reached into their jacket and took out a grenade. In one fluid motion he set it off and threw it at the wide windows, absolutely sure that the explosion would time perfectly with the moment it hit the glass and create their exit.

Turning around on his heel, he aimed his gun at the remaining soldiers and disposed of them deftly. The grenade blew up behind him, creating a stunning frame of fire and glass. The SOL Alliance was definitely unable to make up for the loss of one of their best men.

"Flame is a pretty reliable guy when he's not getting all hammy but…" Ai picked up their conversation from where they last left off. "I just don't think he's much of a mental health kind of guy."

"So you think he's incapable of synchronizing with Takeru?"

"I'm pretty sure a successful synchronization involves both people being calm and collected, and, you know, not screaming their head off while they're falling to their death!"

Yusaku dodged a bullet from a pack of reinforcements, driving him to the edge of the floor where the window had broke. With a good helping of both confidence and foolishness, Yusaku flipped backwards out into the open and twisted in the air to position his feet first. From the corner of his eye, a flash of purple dove underneath them, and he slid right through the open hatch, his shoes scraping the side of the cockpit.

Ai, still in control of the Decode Talker, moved forward and maintained a steady glide around the laboratory while Yusaku swung himself into his seat and strapped himself in. It was stuffy, trying to pilot the Talker in this big old jacket, but comfortable fashion was the least of his worries.

They both watched the chute where they had last seen Takeru and the RX-05, and seconds later, they saw a familiar red suit falling out in the middle of a swan dive down the waterfall and right into the massive lake below them.

"Oh my god, he hasn't got it working yet," Ai let out a heavy sigh, even slouching the Decode Talker for greater measure. "See? I told you we shouldn't have given him a crash course!"

"Ai, the controls."

"Right, right."

A familiar click in the handles, and Yusaku performed a quick maneuver out of autopilot and made a beeline for the RX-05. They were greeted by a bit of static and a screen in the corner.

Their mechanic was none too pleased.

"What took you so long?" Kusanagi scolded them both. "I've been out here trying to get your signals, and you're strolling around the base like you're on a picnic?"

"Give us a break!" Ai stuck his tongue out back through the screen. "We had to spend a lot of time getting Flame's original pilot into his seat!"

"You got him?" The irritation drained from Kusanagi as quickly as it came. "Where is he?"

"Yusaku pushed him off a bridge."

"What?!"

"It's fine," Yusaku absently turned the Decode Talker around to face the small squadron of lesser mobile suits coming for them. His trigger was ready. "We saw him get into the cockpit of the XF-05."

"You left him in free fall to fend for himself?!"

Of course he did. Yusaku knew that those high numbers in the simulations weren't lies. Takeru was in truth a formidable pilot simply by virtue of having been one of the seven children who succeeded to pass Project Hanoi. He had the misfortune of losing his memories of those days like the others, but the skills he gained in that short amount of time were still there lying dormant. The problem was that Takeru didn't know that just yet.

"If he fails, he fails," Yusaku spoke plainly as he kept shooting and weaving in and out of his opponents' attacks. "Whether or not he succeeds in forming a proper synchronization with his Ignis is entirely up to him."

"I mean, I guess that's one way to get him out of his funk," Kusanagi sighed. "Just remind me to never get flight lessons from you."

"You should learn how to pilot a suit at some point, Kusanagi," Yusaku's lips quirked up into a small smille. "It's a lot of work doing all the heavy lifting in this team."

"And have me crash the poor things?" Kusanagi snorted. "I'm your mechanic, not your fellow pilot. If you wanted a friend on the field so badly, maybe we shouldn't have tossed that boy off a cliff."

Yusaku tensed in the middle of firing a barrage of missiles at the next wave of mobile suits. It's been half a year since they've all but disappeared from the front lines ever since Yusaku's fateful encounter with Ryoken that was meant to be their last. Their journey together through that desert was… enlightening, to say the least, but he was right to refuse Ryoken's offer to protect him. The Knights of Hanoi hadn't proved themselves to carry his and Ai's vision, not yet. Now it was just the three of them, and they needed a second pilot to keep their team afloat.

"Yusaku, six o' clock!"

Yusaku caught a familiar blue glint in the distance hurtling at them at top speed, and he twisted the Decode Talker around, blades raised. They caught their intruder by a hair's breadth as the energy of their blades sung and threw off sparks. Yusaku raised his suit's foot up and gave their new opponent a hard kick, throwing both of them off balance.

The mobile suit was one they didn't recognize before, but the blue and white color scheme was unmistakable. Yusaku had been sure that Aoi Zaizen had been taken out of commission after he and Ai had done a number on her prized Holly Angel. But it seemed that her brother and SOL's upper brass had so kindly ordered a new mobile suit.

"Oh, great," Ai scoffed. "And with an upgrade? That's not fair!"

"How is it not fair?" Yusaku frowned at Ai. "We've been away for months. That's plenty of time for SOL to recollect themselves."

"Fairness aside, it seems that SOL was prepared to meet us one on one," Kusanagi sent them a new visual of three Alliance squads closing in on them, definitely big trouble for just one mobile suit. "You better pray that new pilot figures his shit out before you're toast."

* * *

Takeru was so sure that he was going to hit his head on the way down, but the suit adjusted itself so well he fell right into the pilot seat without a scratch. The hatch closed shut for him, and Takeru was alone in a spherical monitor that gave him every angle from the suit. The resolution was so fine, he felt like he wasn't even sitting in a mobile suit in the first place.

"Hello?!" He shouted. "What am I even doing here? Let me out of here!"

No one answered, and the mobile suit began to putter to a stop before going into free fall. Training kicked in, and Takeru grabbed the controls and tried to stabilize the suit to a gentle stop, but to his dismay, the joysticks wouldn't budge. Oh, Takeru was an idiot. Of course he couldn't just jump in and pilot some highly advanced mobile suit without permission!

"Oh, fuck," Takeru hissed under his breath. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..."

He was blinded by the sky as the suit fell out off the rails, and he was jerked around as it plodded against the waterfall in their descent. He could see the end below, and bunch of rocks and more waterfalls.

"Oh, shit, how do you work this thing?" Takeru tried anything, everything, to get the suit to stop. He couldn't think about what he could be doing wrong or right. He needed to survive. He needed to win to live another day.

At some point, he slammed his hands on a panel and that somehow got a response out of the suit. He heard the joints of the suit groan then whir to life as its form began to shift and aim it's thrusters downwards. The suit lurched to a halt a good mile above the end of the waterfall, nearly taking Takeru out of his own seat.

He lived.

Holy shit.

What was happening?

He let out a sigh of relief that he didn't die when a voice echoed within the cockpit.

"Biometrics have been confirmed," the voice resembled a grown man. "Connection with Ignis on frame established."

Takeru was taken aback by activity happening on the panel near his wrist and came to face with a digitized form of a creature similar to the one Yusaku had, only outlined in red instead of purple. It folded its arms against its chest and lifted its chin proudly.

"Welcome back, Homura Takeru," its voice continued to echo around the chamber, but Takeru was sure this thing was talking.

"Welcome-" Takeru stammered. "What the hell? How did you know my name?"

"We've met before, ten years ago," the voice answered resolutely. "When I was born."

"Ten years ago…?" Takeru racked his brain for anything that could have happened then, but nothing came up. At the same time, he could believe that this voice's words carried an ounce of truth. His superiors may have hinted to an accident that might have resulted in his loss of memory. Takeru couldn't remember for the life of him what his childhood was before he began as a young student for SOL, only that he was at best a war orphan the military saw potential in.

The details were fuzzy to him, but he wondered what Yusaku had to do with his own accident ten years ago. In the young man's declarations to the world of his defection from the SOL army, he cited abuse from experiments done on him dating back to ten years back. Takeru didn't think much of it then, but now, he likely had no liberty to ignore those words…

"I am Flame," The Ignis continued without him. "I will return to you full authority over the XF-05 Salamangreat. Right now, we must help our allies, the Dark Ignis and his pilot."

"Wait," Takeru snapped out of his thoughts. "I'm not trained to do this! Aren't I supposed to remember something?"

"You will remember in due time," Flame answered patiently. "And do not lie. Your records prove that you have adequate training for this mobile craft."

"But…"

Before Takeru could say anything more, an alert popped up in the middle of their screen. Flame opened the channel for him with a swipe of a key. He heard the faint sound of lasers firing from the speakers, and flinched at the sound of one whizzing too close to the caller's microphone.

"Okay, communications are a go!" Takeru recognized the chipper voice as that... Ignis that was with Yusaku Fujiki. "How's it going, kiddo? And good evening to you, Flame! Been awhile!"

A small window appeared in the corner of his cockpit, and he saw Yusaku's face again, dour as ever. He didn't say anything, only a nod of acknowledgement. He wasn't even making eye contact with Takeru through the screen.

"… Ai, was it?" Flame addressed the other Ignis. "It has indeed been too long. I expected sooner."

"Well, we tried our best to get to you as soon as we could," Ai protested. "Just be glad that Lightning didn't get to you first."

"Yes," Flame nodded in agreement. "It is fortunate this mobile suit hadn't fallen into his hands."

"Hey, Yusaku, behind you," Ai said to Yusaku, and his pilot took his advice, performing some maneuver to dodge a missile coming for his back. "Anyways, Yusaku, welcome the new kid!"

"I'm currently occupied," Yusaku's voice strained as he was reacting to something else on his end. "You take care of the common soldiers flying out."

"Well, you heard him," Ai chirped. "We're going, so over and out!"

And the call ended, leaving Takeru alone with Flame.

Above them, the Decode Talker was still calmly weaving in and out of enemy fire, all while slashing its sword to deflect the blue whip its main opponent was handling. Just the sheer sight of the combat ensuing sent dread down to the pit of Takeru's stomach. He definitely couldn't compete with that, let alone a common foot soldier.

Takeru felt the mobile suit change forms on its own without his command, he clung even tighter to the armrests, still refusing to touch anything else.

"Wait, why are you moving?!"

"I'm changing to a more mobile form so we can reach the Decode Talker," Flame explained. "I can handle a majority of flight controls, but you will decide when to shoot."

"I can't do anything!" he cried, curling in on himself in the seat. "Don't you know that I fucked up my first mission?! I'm a failure! A sham!"

The haunting images of his former comrades looking back at him with hollowed sunken eyes returned to the forefront of his mind. All these people kept pointing to his potential, but what of the actual things he had done? Everything they said about him was only possible in theory, not reality! Beautiful, soft words meant nothing in the face of his failures, his crimes…

Against his will, the Salamangreat jolted forward. Takeru had expected to go hurtling at top speed, but no, he was moving at a slow, steady ascent. He lifted his head from behind his knees and saw that they had lifted at best half a mile above from the lake where they had stopped. It was still a long way to the dogfight above, but Flame didn't look like he was in much of a hurry. He stood at the edge of their shared panel, arms crossed and still waiting for him to take charge.

"What you did in the past does not define you," Flame's voice came out a lot softer than he expected for an artificial lifeform. "This is your chance to prove that. Perhaps those who had led you before didn't believe you, but I do, and so do they."

Something about those words struck Takeru in a way he had never felt before. For his failures, he received a lot of sympathy from friends and commanding officers alike, but never did they say something like this to him. Most were ready to shield him from further harm, or they flat-out dashed aside their hopes in him, finding better star-studded soldiers to decorate their personal records. What was this kind of warmth that he had sought but never received?

Takeru didn't realize he was crying until he felt the taste of salt in the corners of his mouth. Flame's yellow eyes widened in response, clearly alarmed by his reaction, but Takeru covered his face from view with his arms. He didn't want anyone, not even a highly advanced AI, to see him as a crybaby. His pride was already dented enough.

"I'm sorry," Takeru furiously tried to wipe away the tears. "I'll be ready in a bit."

"Why apologize for being overwhelmed with emotions?" Flame tilted his head curiously. "Is crying not a natural state for humans?"

The Ignis had a point. Takeru sniffled and put his hands away from his face. He was already rock bottom, what more did he really have to lose? The only way to go was up.

"Do not hesitate," Flame comforted him. "You and I command this suit. I will not let you fail."

With shaky hands, Takeru reached out to the controls and let his fingers fit into the grip of his joysticks. The memory of dismembered limbs and scraps of metal returned to the forefront of his mind, but he willed himself to brush it aside for now. Confidence was something that could be so easily restored, but he had to survive this.

He threw his arm forward and the Salamangreat spun and aimed skywards.

**Author's Note:**

> Yusaku: Vibe check. *drop kicks Takeru off a bridge*
> 
> Oh, and just so you know, I have no idea what the Barian Empire is doing here or what to do with them. I just wrote that as a fun reference and SOL needed to fight a big enemy while annexing other nations into their alliance.


End file.
